hi
Iam new on the site,iam interested to start selling designer tiles stock,such as versace and more from italy,i have got supplier friend in italy , He advise me to start,but i don't have expiriance on tiles business,I don't know where to start,any advise will help...
ISSA

I would be doing a lot of homework, Location, Marketing and learn as much about your product as possible.
Perhaps go to Italy and work with your friend for while (if poss) to learn some skills on the tiles your planning to sell and business acrument
Don't think it will be that easy in the present climate but you never know.

Remember, If you fail to plan, You plan to fail

Hello and welcome ISSA

My advice is the same as Whitebeam if you are going to be selling at the high end of the market you need to know the product backwards, upside down and inside out. I would not buy anything like expensive tiles without getting full background information and i would want to have confidence that the person who was selling to me knew their onions

Kev

think it through carefully, selling high end tiles is quite a difficult market, because the customer base is so small. We mainly deal with the higher end of the market, but the tiles at around £30 - £40 a metre are still our bread and butter. We couldnt survive just selling the £100 - £400 a metre tiles. We tend to keep away from the cheap crap, we leave that to the sheds and the nationals and deal with the more classy end of the market. It can be a good idea to avoid the budget stuff and stick with the real quality but personally i'd be a bit wary of dealing exclusivly with the very expensive. The expenses in running a shop are huge, so you need a lot of orders to break even. Also to start a 'designer' showroom you will need to spend a lot on it to make it look like a designer showroom. I'm not trying to put you off, but just make sure you've really researched your customer base and that there really is a market for it. Also, if you want to stock, make sure you've got the capital to bring it in, because no manufacturers will give you credit agreements if your just starting up. Hope that helps. Dave

Have got to agree. I'm part of a group that have high market brands to its name. They have a huge warehouse, have the PM's shop there, celebs etc, CAD programmes in store etc, it is a hard market to crack and without a lot of funds behind you it's going to be hard to start off.

As the others have said, do your homework.

Thanx every body for good advise,what about if i start to rent storage unit,selling on ebay and on website,I think start up cost will be low,what do u think?
ISSA

Yes, the costs will be low but where are you gonna get your customers from? That is the issue, people who buy these kind of tiles, in my experience do not shop of EBay.

I do wish you success though. Let us know what you decide

I just spoke with my friend in Italy.He told me he can supply large stocks tiles and factory 2nd versace tiles good quality in very good price.any one got idea about 2nd tiles market?or intersted doing business?
ISSA

Personally I'd always keep away from seconds. I think it gives a bad reputation of the company. You have to tell the customer they're seconds, so i think it gives you a cheap image. Seconds can vary from being a few shades different to what was intended which is not too bad, but it can be that theyre out of square, bowed, or have flaws in the glaze. Can be any number of things really. Why not go down the distributer route to get started up and get some capital behind you? Distributers will put stands in your showroom normally for free. You make less, but theres no risk, no stocks to worry about, batch problems, and less investment. Plus you will mostly get a daily delivery service, whereas imports can take weeks and you need to bring quite a bit over to make it worthwhile. Dont run before you can walk. You could stand to lose a lot of money if you invest heavily in stock and then cant sell it.

Best to do the homework before taking the plunge.

People who can afford those high end prices don't normally buy seconds

Kev